Homeless count held in Oroville, Butte County

OROVILLE — Volunteers from diverse backgrounds came together Thursday to help with the Butte Countywide Continuum of Care homeless count.

Working from command centers in Oroville, Chico, Gridley and Paradise, hundreds of volunteers went out to homeless camps and to areas where the homeless get services, to fill out surveys that will help bring grants into the county to provide services to the homeless.

Debbie Villasenor, a member of the Continuum of Care, said she's volunteered to fill out surveys for the last three years to collect data on the needs of the homeless.

"The changes I've seen today from the past years is that more people with children and young people are homeless," Villasenor said.

Villasenor, who also works on a Butte County Department of Behavioral Health housing program, said about one-third of the homeless population suffer from mental illness.

One of the needs that the continuum has identified in Butte County is for transitional, emergency and affordable housing, she said.

Carol Zanon of the Oroville Homeless Coalition organized the count in Oroville.

Zanon said the command center at the Hope Center had been very busy and very productive all morning.

"It has been a great community effort," Zanon said. "I'm excited that we had so many community members come and help us."

Zanon said people from the community had come in all morning with soup, chili, stew, beverages, desserts and snacks for the count.

She said many businesses like Taqueria Maria and the Iron Skillet donated items.

Fastenal Co. donated 160 pairs of gloves as well as flashlights, tarps and other items for raffle prizes that were given away every hour.

The Hope Center snack wagon served breakfast items starting at 6 a.m. and Jakes Burgers Catering and Jakes Burgers & More cooked and served hamburgers from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Brandon Hill and his wife Marla, who run Jakes Catering, have taken the snack wagon to a homeless outreach in Reno for four years.

"This is our chance to do it here," he said.

Their daughters Brianna, Faith and Britany took the hamburgers after they were cooked back inside to be served.

Hill said the owner of Eastside Market in Palermo donated the hamburger, and they served more than 200 burgers for lunch.

A variety of churches brought volunteers to work including Jordan's Crossing and the Church in the Barn on Highway 70 south of Oroville.

The Church in the Barn has a homeless outreach. The church buses people from Chico and Oroville to the church on Sunday, where they attend services and eat.

Larry Currier operates a nonprofit called Citywide Ministry for clean and sober housing from the Church in the Barn.

Currier's cousin, who was homeless at the time, was beaten to death in Chico by Butte College students, he said.

After that Currier decided to help the homeless, and the late Coleen Jarvis, a Chico city councilor and attorney with Northern California Legal Services, wrote the application for Citywide Ministry, he said.

For a while, he let homeless people live at his house. Now he has transitional housing at the Church in the Barn and is trying to write grants to expand the service.

Many people could get off the streets, he said, if they had temporary housing.

Currier said he knows how hard it is for people who live on the streets.

"It's just survival out there," Currier said. "You don't have to pay rent or bills, but it's all about survival."

He said many of the homeless have disabilities and only get $700 or $800 a month, so it's hard for them to find housing.

Currier was homeless for seven years after his mother committed suicide when he was a teenager.

He became addicted to alcohol and drugs, until God set him free. Currier said he sees many homeless people with talents and gifts they can't realize because they are so battered and beaten down by society.

"It's kind of like a flower that closes up when rain hits it, and it opens up in the sun," Currier said. "God can cause people to open up."

Maria Cooper of the Hope Center also volunteered to work. Cooper, who works with homeless clients at the center, once lived in her car, so she knows what it's like to be homeless.

Cooper said God gave her a vision to feed the homeless, which she has been doing for three years.

Cooper enjoys working with the homeless and ministering to them. She often calls them brother or sister, which they enjoy.

"They get a little sparkle in their eyes when you are kind to them," Cooper said. "That's called hope. People often don't realize what just a kind word can do for someone."

During the count, one of Cooper's homeless clients brought her a little heart-shaped box of candy to thank her for being a caring person.

One volunteer said she couldn't give her name because she is still homeless and trying to start a business.

If people found out that she was living in her car, she said they would not use her services, even though she has a college degree.

"There is a great stigma about homelessness," she said. "You just don't realize how much hatred some people have for anyone who becomes homeless."

This woman said she became homeless when she lost her property though foreclosure.

Larry Hayde, who started the center with his wife Stephanie to minister to the poor and homeless, serves hot meals to those in need four times a week. They also give free clothing, hygiene kits and emergency food bags.

The center also offers basic life skill classes for budgeting and cooking.

Hayden said sometimes seeing the great need people have especially in this economy gets him down, but he falls back on his faith in God.

"I love this work because there's so many organizations and people getting involved to help," Hayden said. "I see little miracles every day. When there are so many people working in unity like today, it lets them (the homeless) know there's someone who cares and someone who wants to help."

Staff writer Mary Weston can be reached at 533-3135 or mweston@orovillemr.com.